I love the Sun’s yearly trip through Virgo. It gives me extra energy and drive to clean the nooks and crannies, to clear the decks.

The Sun passing through Virgo may drive the garbage collectors a little mad. I imagine trashed items are popping out of waste containers all over town.

We are preparing for a warm house full of welcome visitors. My son is already here and my daughter will soon will be. That has added to my desire to tidy up the elements of home.

These pix were taken in morning light with the aid of a tripod and a longer exposure. It is a very dark room after the scant morning light has traveled west.

Styling isn’t too snazzy. This room is a rectangle with a fireplace and the front door at one end, a wall of windows on the east side, and west wall, with the stereo, is aligned with the walking space to the rest of the house. The furniture has to be placed in a space in the middle of the room between and closer to the windows on the east wall.

Through most of the day this room is rather dark. Though we resisted putting a video screen in this room for years (less temptation to veg out when one could be working ) we’ve given in and made this a media room. We can watch documentaries, Breaking Bad repeats or Akira Kurosawa movies in the middle of the day. That is my next pleasure-based goal. A private and lengthy Akira Kurosawa film festival. The Criterion Collection has 25 Kurosawa films!

Everything needs to be about function and flow. I need to be able to move from one thing for another, to switch hats from artist/maker to caretaker, from blogger to film fanatic. Working at home, I must address multiple projects and responsibilities everyday.Life has taught me to be flexible. I am lucky to be able to take small bits of time for myself in the midst of all the demands.

There is coolness in the morning air and if you look closely you will see leaves turning colors. Autumn is slowly slipping in.

The weather channels have Redding in the high 90s for all of next week but that can change.

Looking at these photos from November 2009 let me cheat a bit on getting a bit of that fall feeling.

Marla in her grand Afro fright wig. Scaredy Kat freaking in my old work space.

Pumpkin muffins are a real good bet. Can you smell them, warm and fresh from the oven?

We must wait a few more weeks.

Our black inanimate dog is now sporting the grand afro. He looks great.

Most of yesterday was spent rearranging the living room and the attached work space.

Resisted televisuals in the living room for years but no more. I love big screens and I can feed it all from my computer. Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu. I am a documentary hog. I love learning about all kinds of stuff. Kinda semi-heavenly.

Two girls are completely finished now. With all the distractions that have presented themselves over the last few months it took a very long time.

This series of dolls was created as a pleasurable indulgence. They are about play. They were also a project that could allow for some freedom. They do not have to evoke a certain likeness just an approximate one. It is more important that they are evocative but equally important is that I create something a little different.

It was important to work from the simplest cloth doll form. Nothing too fancy or heavily wrought, tweaked over, engineered. I deeply appreciate the cloth doll made from scrap, from available materials, created from nothing much to please a child of times gone by. That history, simplicity, authenticity moves me.

The embroidered faces of my first series of dolls wore out my patience. I create in a ball of fury and, being an Aries, that fury is strong but short-lived. Sitting for a long spell at the same task is very trying for me. ADD? Probably.

There is nothing like that initial flash of an idea and the desire to make it real. It’s delicate. It’s like mist. It rises and disintegrates so quickly.

Gotta get it while it’s hot.

This series of women in their lingerie, inspired by Egon Schiele’s sketches, was meant to be free of marketplace concerns.

Would anybody want them? Are they sellable?

These dolls are about exploring my ability to covey a particular aesthetic. They are about learning to control the language spoken by the materials.

I began using permanent markers, Prismacolor pencils, lips cut from cloth thereby reducing the amount of embroidery on the face. I like the look of it and allows me to see results more quickly, to add color quickly.

I was not always happy with the way the embroidered lips turned out. Especially on my Mick Jaggers. I kept thinking that the lip thread could catch on something and be pulled out-of-place. Mick’s lips would be in disrepair. Egad.

The bigger the lips the more stitches and layers of thread were required. Hours and hours of stitching. It was growing impractical for production.

Experimental creations keep me hopping. I love the process of discovering of being in the moment not knowing how something will turn out.

It’s exciting.

Hair-dos have always been my favorite part of doing the dolls (after doing the face).

I love cutting shaggy dos but in this series I wanted a form that stood for the up do. I wanted to have a built mass/shape and I’ve added only a few tendrils. It isn’t too heavy.

Some dos on dolls in the first series were top-heavy. Poor Stevie had to have a leg-strengthening operation just to hold his head up.

O course, the beads didn’t help.

The second series of Lingerie Dolls will lead me back to the creation of dolls of women artists. I have the pictures and a list — Georgia O’Keeffe! Yayoi Kusama! Natalia Fabia! Alice Neel! Shall I go on?

Because time is what it is, because my desire fires and cools, because I see the creative process as beautiful ponies on a slowly turning carousel, I wait until a pretty one comes back around and then I jump on.

I dream of getting to get to them all eventually.

The Robyn Hitchcock doll is still up there — large, capable, exciting, shaking his silvery locks, twitching a little under the influence of his next musical move. ♥♥♥.

Inspired by Egon Scheile’s women I decided to see if I could make something in my simple cloth doll format.

It is pleasurable to make the faces in a new way — Prismacolor pencil and permanent marker around the eyes, cloth lips hand stitched into place and slightly embellished with embroidery thread. The hair is in sort of block form, just shapes with tendrils, to represent and up do.

They are dressed in Fin de Siecle under garments. I’m working on getting them to look right having scored lots of nice materials.

I think the underwear will be most successful in all white, off white. For this first try I used this pale brick color for the top but it’s cut and color are too modern. I need to keep them simple and yet sort of voluminous.

The women are the project I do in between Etsy orders of Donut andCurly Star pillows.

I’m making three curly stars this weekend. I will get back to the women later. I also have biz taxes due soon. Paperwork and doctors appointments and errands . . .

I managed to make a blonde head that is pleasingly Mae-West like.

I am working on a series of girls for the DarcyArts shop. A redhead is next. She’ll have green eyes.

I gave the blonde lavender eye shadow and a little purple star tattoo high up on her cheek.

And, by the way, LA Ink starts next Thursday. Will it be frustration or fun?

Rolling out the projects and delighting in construction, composition, design of all kinds!

It’s been hot as Hades here in the north country. It was close to 100 degrees yesterday. I worked inside all day until getting word that my donuts were okay for shipping to North Carolina. I went out the car to find the battery dead. Disaster was averted thanks to AAA. They sent out a battery fixing unit and we soon had a new unit and I was off to the post office. The battery dude was really nice.

Here is a picture of my little soft sculpture tableau. I call it “Hello Bliss.” It includes (in my mind) the muslin paint and glitter testing strip to the left in the picture. I made the hand stamped follow your bliss flag and the yellow mushroom ( I will make mushroom, I will make mushrooms!). I did not make the Hello Kitty.

Seeing this little assemblage makes me happy.

I’ve got the Bellatrix face going on, y’all. It’s coming together very well. She will look great when she has her curly long hair. Tune in next week for the reveal.

I’m working and trying to breathe deep in the summer air. It seems harder to do in the last few years. It seems my on again, off again asthma has been persistently dogging me since last fall. Please, lord, don’t let there be any fires despite how desperately the city editor at The Record Searchlight may pray for them.

Errands this morning will prevent me from sharing the wasp/spider story until tomorrow. Stay tuned.